Tuesday, August 28, 2012

A few weekends back, I was honoured to be part of a debate
panel on Monsters, Horror and Genre at the first ever Monsters of Film festival
held here in Stockholm. (A great little festival that I hope lives on forever)
During this debate, or rather discussion panel, I tried to make a point that
there’s a trend now of fictional monsters being replaced by factual monsters,
i.e. us. We, mankind, are the monster in so many films I see these days that I
have to say it’s a budding genre trend. A Serbian Film, The Bunny Game, The Human
Centipede, Pig, Grotesque, etc., the list can go on forever, in several ways
completely different films, but they are all connected by having a antagonist
in the shape of a Human. My rapidly blurted theory got thrown something track as
one panel colleague argued that mankind isn’t really a monster, preferring to
look at the acts of evil instead. But then again, it’s acts of evil that define
a monster; otherwise we’d call them something else. If it’s not evil, then it’s
not a monster, is it? So when a human does evil things we call him, or her, a
monster. It’s the red-zone definition of evil being.

I just saw a movie that I’m pretty convinced could be placed
in that debatable niche, Ben Wheatley’sKill List. A film where man is monster.

Jay [Neil Maskell] is a former soldier now taking
assignments as a hit man together with his mate Gal [Michael Smiley]. The pair ventures
out on their first assignment after an eight month absence, following an
“Incident” during their last mission, in Kiev. Pretty soon the balance comes
off kilter when Jay, without warning goes off the deep end once again. What was
supposed to be a series of simple assassinations, instead become acts of
profound violence. Gal see’s his best friend going over the deep end, and
following an uncanny encounter with a strange pagan cult, they take the
decision to walk away from the three part assignment.This decision drives them deeper into the sinister
scheme they have unknowingly have been drawn into.

If you come into Kill List expecting a generic horror film
then you may be confused by what you see. If you come into Kill List looking
for something rare, powerful and terrifyingly close to earth, then you are in
for a treat. Kill List is a captivating movie, I was pulled in and manipulated
to such an extent that the last act pulled the carpet from under my feet. I
really get a kick out of movies when they trick me with their storytelling or
move me with their cunning manipulation. I don’t intend to peel away all the
layers of mystery in the movie, but I can certainly point out a few really
impressive traits that make it one hell of a powerful movie, with that unsettling
last moment mind fuck that really messes you up as the film dives into it’s end
credits.

The first oddity of the film is the way Wheatley uses the
Ordinary world. Normally one would build to a breakpoint where the unnatural suddenly
bursts on screen, or is slowly introduced, and the nightmare begins. Wheatley more
or less stays in the ordinary world through out the whole movie. Nothing really
slips through, there’s no real transition into a haunted realm or moments where
the uncanny is introduced into the world he takes us to. It’s all realism to the max. It’s almost like
watching a Ken Loach, Lindsay Anderson or a Mike Leigh film. A terrifyingly
realistic, and everyday familiar setting, where you never really know how they
are going to wrap it all up, in despair, turmoil or a sigh of relief ending. It’s
similar in mood to the emotional ride of Shane Meadow’sDead Man’s Shoes
blended with the curios paganism of Robert Hardy’s The Wickerman and even Ray
Austin’sVirgin Witch in some aspects.

The drama unfolding never really gives you a chance to relax as you sit on edge
waiting for answers to questions you have, not knowing where Wheatley will take
his characters. It’s intriguing and captivating.

So, lacking release Wheatley never once lets the unnatural
in, but instead builds slowly, slowly, until the last possible moment. This not
saying that there’s nothing there at all, there is, but it’s done in a subtle
way as small details, which may not really seem unnatural are introduced along
the way. He builds towards the last minute reveal, where a haunting rush of
insight slaps the viewer right in the face. Jay and the audience are plunged into
the depths of profound darkness. None of it possible without the tools of
manipulation had been cunningly manipulating you whilst you watch.

A second important detail that sells the ordinary world is the
relationship between Jay and his Swedish wife Shelly [MyAnna Buring]. It’s a
marriage on the rocks, both of them frantically grasping at something that’s just
not there anymore. There’s animosity, constant conflict, anger. All strong
emotions that reflect back into Jay’s behaviour during his assignment.

Further questions are posed when the constellation becomes
apparent. Where one would think Jay would keep his profession from Shelley,
it’s in fact she who we could call their manager. This is somewhat unique and
creates a strange mind-set. It would be very easy to write them all off as
evil, as they are merchants of death. But it’s not quite that easy. Wheatly and
co-writer Amy Jump push the right buttons by first presenting the ordinary
world where Jay and Shelly are struggling for their relationship. The most of
us can relate to this and recognize the feelings of anger, remorse, frustration
that comes with fights and their aftermath. This helps us in our emotional
recognition with Jay. We need this to bond with him, to invest in the character
and it also is vital to help us empathize with him. Important for the climax
and the disruptive feeling the film will leave us with.

During surveillance before a hit, Jay and Gal find a video recording of
something that disturbs these hardened hit men to the verge of tears. This
declares that Jay isn’t just the cold-blooded killer we presume him to be, but he’s
also an emotional guy who holds some moral ground despite his dark profession.
It’s another moment in which we empathize with him. This also sets up a strange
moment when we find ourselves agreeing with the immense amount of violence Jay
uses when he confronts the victim about the recording he found. We more or less
feel that the act taped justifies the violence.

The most important ingredient to Kill List is the complex
character of Jay, and the dimension he has. If he’d been nothing else than a
cold killing machine, the ending would never have the same effect. Here it
comes rapidly from a slow build, presents several stunning rushes of insight
and proposes a whole new scenario to be. If this where an American movie, I’d
have guessed they where setting it up for a sequel, but instead it’s a
fantastic ending that cuts off at just the right point. Tying up so many loose
ends in one single scene, only to cascade the viewer with new ones as the movie
peaks to a climax.Again, it’s not until
the end credits start rolling that the moment catches up with me and the impact
of what I just saw starts to sink in.

I’ve seen and been moved by a lot of the later years
disturbing dark British horror films, but Kill List may just be one of the most
ferocious Brit flicks made, as it’s final act opens doors most others end by closing.
I’m left with a portal into a void, and it’s only my imagination that limits
the atrocities to come. Keeping the twist until the last possible moment is a
stroke of genius. There’s nowhere Wheatley could have taken us that would have
provoked more than the ending that is. As said, the mind and our own mental
images of what happens next are much more effective and intense than anything
Wheatley could have put on screen.

Returning to the opening theory, perhaps the real mind fuck
of the “man is monster” niche is that quite often the monster is a character we
feel for. Even way back in John McNaughton’s ice cold, masterpiece Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, empathy for the psychotic and disturbed Henry [Michael Rooker] is evoked.
Adam Rehmeier’sThe Bunny Game, where we never actually see Hog [Jeff Renfro] kill
Bunny [Rodleen Getsic]. Instead there’s a strong moment that I read as Hog
feeling remorse, hence handing her over to the Jonas character. Milos [Srdjan Todorovic] in Srdjan
Spasojevic’s profoundly dark and provocative A Serbian Film isn’t a good guy in
any way. But within that midpoint twist where Milos say’s he want’s nothing to
do with the perversities of Vukmir’s [Sergej Trifunovic] so called art, and walks away from the
lucrative deal, we start developing some kind of bond with Milos. We may not
like him, but we empathize with him as we do with many of those other monsters.
We become one with the monster, as we can empathize with their reason behind
their dark acts. We justify their acts.

So why do I want to place Kill List in the Man is Monster
niche? I do so because Jay is the monster. Definitely a tool for the cult, but
at the same time a monster who has no problem taking to excessive violence, a
man whom the cult can shape for their use, a monster who commits and will commit
further evil actions. We empathize with Jay when he shows emotions; when he
leaves his family for the mission, when he reacts to the video, when he
witnesses the pagan ritual, there’s emotions that in contrast to the violent behaviour
gives him dimension. Potent traits, which are essential to creating an
empathetic monster. We may not agree with his profound use of violence, but we
can understand it. Hence, Man is Monster.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

A mate of mine says that I’m becoming something of a patron
saint of German splatter, as I’m always going on about it, and taking up web
space by writing serious reviews about those movies. Well what can I say? I
like enthusiasm, and if there’s one thing that shines through all the carnage of
German splatter films it’s the enthusiasm of the filmmakers. It almost taint’s
it’s audience and sends them off into the world with a sensation of felling
good after watching a German splatter flick. I’ve previously written on the
traits I find associated with German splatter, and they make up a great
cocktail of what some may call morbid entertainment. But I find it peculiarly
close to the aesthetics of punk rock. Yeah. The philosophy being – “wot’s gonna
stop us, pick up an instrument and let’s go”. It’s the same with independent
filmmakers, what’s going to stop them? They pick up their cameras and go. Add
to that that German splatter film directors and producers are always terribly
polite, terrifically enthusiastic and let nothing stop them in their vision of
carnage.

At the Institute für Meizinische Laboruntersuchungen a
scientist pushed by his bosses to create a reanimation drug, pushes too far,
and it obviously goes terribly wrong. A
bloody carnage takes place leaving the scientist and his boss [played by
producer Lars Rohnstock] minions of the walking dead. Fast cut to opening titles
and the introduction of characters on their way to be slaughtered. A band of
black clothed kids out on a countryside drive, who just happen to take a piss-break
right outside the old cemetery on the hill.

Obnoxious one, Rick [Ramon Kaltenbach who also composed the
score for the flick], is the first to go and so far it’s all pretty straight
forward. Zombie shuffle, zombie grab, girls scream, guys try to run, zombie
chomp, guts and goo a go-go! Then the first of several small quirks, which work
in favour of the film kick in. The gang fight off the undead and run to safety
in a small shed… The shed being a problem as they now are trapped inside whilst
zombies ferociously pound on the door outside. The dilemma being that both Tom
[Played by writer/director Marc Rohnstock] and David have been bitten, David so
serious that he’s unconscious. Knowing their zombie lore, they know that time
is precious.

Unlike many other German splatter films, there’s not much
comic relief in Graveyard of the Living Dead, which makes the cynicism and
irony stand out so much more. The simple irony of life, the things we moan and
complain about everyday, those “oh why does this always happen to me…” moments.
Which is why we laugh when they find a chainsaw, only to realize it’s empty of
gas. The band of mates flee into the cemetery and start fighting off the
zombies, which produces fountains of blood and gore which drenches the ground
below the infected beasts. The kids leave the battle as victors and the story
could have ended here… alas nay, before they have had time to return to the
humble shack and fetch still unconscious David, the blood of the zombies seeps
into the soft soil of the cemetery and resurrects the living dead.

This is where the film get’s groovy, turn on the smoke machines,
lay down the Misfits sound-a-like beats and let the dead rise from their
shallow graves… Oh and one of them seems to have lost her shirt. What is it
with naked zombie chicks that get’s me all worked up? Survival horror starts
now!

There’s a morbid cynicism to the film as Tom is bitten early
on when they try to save Rick. If there’s one thing everyone knows about
zombies it’s that their bite turns their victims into one of them as the
infection is transmitted through bodily fluids… wait, hold the naked zombie
chick fantasy for a moment. This is the kind of cynicism I’m referring to when
I call it a trait. Sometimes I have a problem getting into zombie films as they
frequently end up walking that very nihilistic doomed ending path, hence
resulting in me not really caring about the characters, after all they are all going
to die anyway! Unless they are well written and manage to draw me into their
story, which will have me empathise, and invest in them, giving the result that
I will give a damn. In some way I can say that the Tom character is what makes
it interesting. There’s something captivating in that “I’m doomed, but I’m going
to fight for my own, and your survival as long as I can” persona. It’s what I
sometimes refer to as dimension within a character, even if it includes going
out amongst the undead, siphoning petrol from your own car so that you can fill
up the chainsaw and get some serious mayhem as you massacre your way through
the undead in the final act!

Back to that punk rock aesthetic; I really love the way the
movie is shot, away from the dark of night, the fog of customary. Instead it’s
shot in the bright sunlight! So everything is clear to see, no blurry dark basement
special effects, it’s all out there in the light of day for you to see clearly.
Effects are cheap; acting is so so, camera work is good enough, but just like
punk rock, it doesn’t really matter how well produced your track is, as long as
it delivers. Graveyard of the Living Dead delivers, just as a three-minute shit
kicking punk track delivers, it delivers an
eighty-nine minute gore drenched shit kicker. Graveyard of the Living Dead is a punk rock bloodbath, frantically spitting and stomping untill the last frame. Decapitations, intestine grappling,
headshots, fountains of blood and everything that comes with the territory
including some surprise jump scares, a cameo appearance by Timo Rose, and a
shocking last minute twist that you will never see coming.

Ramon Kaltenbach and Martin Rüdel’s score does what it’s
supposed to do, but for me the big kick is the many psychobilly / horror punk rock
bands in the vain of Glen Danzig’s Misfits that are a treat. Bands like Blitzkid,
The Other, Godforasken, and electro band Blutzukker. They bring a high
production value to the flick and I’m still singing The Other’sBeware of Ghouls as I write this.

Kudos to Dark Entertainment who in this constellation, and previous incarnations of their lable, have always been prone to distributing the real, real indie productions of the world. Without them, I'm sure a lot of the movies in their great back catalouge would never have been released at all. If you are attending the Weekend of Horror's in Bottrop, Germany in November, make sure to drop by their stall and pick up a fist full of their great releases!

Included on the disc is the Rohnstock brothers 2008 short
film Dark Awakening. They followed up Graveyard of the Living Dead with the
magnificent Necronos : Tower of Doom 2012 also available from Dark Entertainment in it’s complete uncut glory.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Leaving Brixton, UK for the Irish countryside in 2000, Silver Ferox immediately fell in love with the clean air, space and relaxed lifestyle.
Seeking a change of direction in life, he regenerated and focused on a new
path. Real countryside dark is something to behold if you've been a
suburban/city rat most of your life and like the precarious bridge in The Evil Dead, the internet connection in his parts of the world are an unpredictable
lifeline to the outside world, without
which he would be destined to roam the forests with only his imagination for
companion...

...perhaps this is where he finds inspiration for the stunning artwork he's been producing these last couple of years. I decided it was time to seek out the man behind the artwork and have a chat about exploitation cinema, poster design and what makes good art.

Thanks for taking the time out of your hectic schedule
for this little chat!

Thank you, Jason. I've been a fan of your Cinezilla blogspot
and many FaceBook album posts over the last few years – your hipstamatic snaps
ranging from European cuisine to a fistful of ladybirds had me hooked!

Thanks! So, what’s your story? How come you ended up a
graphic designer; what path brought you here?

The path of least resistance. I was watching Hammer movies
at five years old, due to my complete insistence that I was woken up at around
eleven at night for the few hours in which the UK BBC TV horror double bills
aired weekly during the 70s. By the time I was 13, I was renting and buying
every so-called 'video nasty' on V2000 (yes, it was me who bought into that
fledgling format) and boning up on my FX masters and horror directors from
issues of Fangoria, Starburst, Samhain and Deep Red. I aced my grades in my 'O'
and 'A' level Art exams at school and college (both of which I loathed with a
passion) since I grew up being taught how to draw and paint by my dad and with
these tickets I landed myself a death sentence in an established architectural
firm in London's Regents Park for the next four years. A welcome redundancy
caused by the UK recession in the early 90s meant that I then spent my twenties
committed to a string of activities ranging from regular Tai Chi practice and
the study of holistic and esoteric philosophies whilst also Djing at the height
of the UK acid house movement with a hardcore dance outfit which eventually led
to me spending most of my time making noise in a home midi music studio set-up.
I abandoned my visual art practices for over a decade during this time until I
took stock of my life and moved to Ireland when I was thirty where I returned
to college on the West coast, graduating with an Honors Degree in Fine Art in
the mid-noughties.

You’re making yourself a good reputation for poster art and
design. What got you started with this?

In early 2010, I sat down and made some fan posters in
Photoshop for some of my favorite flicks for no reason other than to indulge my
passion. A month later I joined FaceBook and started posting up a few of my
creations and within a few months I had over a hundred designs cooked up.
Feedback was good from fellow genre fans and a few of them who also happened to
be independent directors from the US and UK contacted me asking whether I'd
like to make posters to promote their features. That was the critical stage for
me – doing what I loved in a movie genre I had grown up with and then placing
those creations where they could attract the attention of like-minded
individuals. I then established an online presence with my Silver Ferox blogspot and began to approach anyone who I thought might require designs, as
long as what they were doing was of personal interest to me - that's the only
way I'll ever keep my heart in my work and deliver a true communication through
my art.

So, what are the inspirations for your designs?

Atmosphere, resonant and palpable is essentially what drives
me – it's paramount for me to feel a gut reaction from anything I see or hear
in order for it to influence my work. 70s and 80s movie posters and video cover
art plus the work of the great masters of fine art and design is my main pool
of 2D resources, but essentially, I have gotten my deepest sensations through
watching and listening to my favourite films and music and then attempting to
transfer those feeling-thoughts to my designs.

Throw me a couple of names that have been important for you
as a designer.

H.R.Giger, Edgar Degas, Andy Warhol, James McNeill Whistler.

How long have you been working with (poster) design?

Two and a half years. I think I had a day off this year.

Although your art does speak for itself, and certainly is
fierce, tell me about the name - why Silver Ferox Key Art?

I've always loved the word 'ferox' from the Cannibal Ferox
movie title – although I hadn't a clue as to what it meant initially; it just
sounded like everything I imagined something taboo and brutal as hell to be.
It's Latin for the word 'fierce' or 'feral' so it expresses the savage and untamed,
a quality I like to express through my art – primal freedom to create outside
of the constraints of conventionality and conformity. It also has the letter
'x' in it which reminds me of the UK 'X certificate' that adorned all the
movies I had to take steps to see when I was a kid – it's as if the word itself
has an 'X rating' at its footer. 'Silver' alludes to the term 'silver screen'
which was a common type of movie projection screen used in the early days of
cinema. Literally covered in silver dust to reflect outward the light from the
projector, it is also a metaphor for an entrancing oasis of light from which
man's dreams are made visual. 'Ferocious Cinema Key Art' is a suitable
translation, with 'key art' being the professionally accepted term used to
describe main poster campaign art used to promote a movie – the images and
logos utilized to 'unlock' the essence of the movie being advertised.

Once upon a time poster art was all about painting an
imaginary portal into the world of the movie. Images triggered the imagination
and generated so much more anticipation than the generic “number of cast faces
on display”. I’m almost offended by generic poster art and more frequently I’ll
reject titles due to crap artwork that doesn’t tickle my imagination. Many of
your designs capture that key essence of the movie and really do push the
imagination. What’s your philosophy when it comes to designing a poster?

Listen to the images! They are portions of consciousness and
they'll communicate to you if you respect that. In practice, this means I
obtain the best images I can get my hands on from a movie and present them in
as pure and uncluttered a way as possible, supported by complimentary use of
fonts and layout. That's my main approach. I'm all about the raw image and try
to avoid gilding the lily with extraneous use of Photoshop technique or trying
to cram in too many images unless it generates a desired overdrive effect as
opposed to diluting the impact of the design. One of the main reasons I have so
far used photo stills from movies or shot my own photographic images in an
appropriate style for my posters is to remain as true as possible to the
aesthetics of the movie and you can't get closer than actual movie frames on
paper/onscreen. Painted and illustrated posters using either traditional
materials or contemporary digital painting techniques along with a combination
of media – photos/painting, graphic shapes and creative use of type - are all
highly effective in transporting the viewer of the poster into the world of the
movie it is advertising, although these renderings are more about the poster
artists' individual perspectives as
opposed to attempting to become transparent as an artist and directly
showcasing the images from the movie itself.

If you want to develop a style, you should focus on what
you're proficient in and develop further skills until such time as they're
employable. Most important for me personally is that the poster emanates a
quality that can be felt as well as seen- how you arrive at that conclusion/the
technique used is irrelevant.

If we were to talk about poster art of today, I’d say that
I find it really boring, tedious and immensely repetitive… What would you say, and why?

Until many production companies and distributors start to
invest an appropriate amount of money in selling their products through 2D
imagery, the commissioned artists will only deliver an appropriate level of
commitment and quality of work, unless they are personally motivated to
generate work that breaks the mould since it reflects on their reputation and
satisfies' their creative goals. There are, however, a number of artists and
studios around who are on the cutting edge and deliver incredible pieces
outside the call of duty and this serves to demonstrate that they wake up each
day with the intention of fulfilling their creative passion as much as possible
as opposed to focusing on exactly how much money they can make/save.

It’s obvious we share a passion for eighties horror, and
many of your works on the site are re-workings of some of the best films in the
genre. Tell me about these works…As I
mentioned before, these new artworks contain enticing imagery that are often lacking from a lot of modern poster art – why rework old classics, and what has the
general response been towards this?

The reason I either rework or just do my own thing when it
comes to my favourite classic flicks is simply to quench a compulsion I feel to
connect with them in the best way I know how to. There's a bracket of maybe
around two-hundred of my favourite films that I'm focusing on doing designs for
as part of my private/portfolio work which encompasses Eurohorror, American
independent, Hammer Studios, 70s and 80s crime, exploitation and arthouse
features with my essential directorial line-up of usual suspects comprised of
Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, George Romero,
Ruggero Deodato, Stanley Kubrick and Abel Ferrara among others. I have spent
years building an image database that has maybe around 50,000 images of posters
and various format video covers and lobby cards and this is where I go to
research the necessary details and drink in the vibes that I then dress my work
in. Collecting fonts that have been used on vintage posters for use in my own
work is also an essential practice, along with using only the original taglines
that appeared on the official posters to aid in an authentic updating.
Technically, the main ingredient I bring to my designs is perhaps a tighter
approach to layout and text sizing plus sprucing up of the images in Photoshop
for increased tonal levels.

Version 1.

Above all, my goal is to produce work that is contemporary,
making use of advancements in the digital realm to fine tune certain elements
to my current taste and not to attempt to create something that might be
regarded as a forgery of something that could have existed back in the day. If
I wanted to do that, then I'd have to disregard all of the production stages I
spend an increasing amount of time on these days, which were lacking from my
early work and which subsequently resulted in three of my early Fulci posters
from 2010 appearing in Blu-ray disc galleries and in current horror magazines
because the editors sincerely thought they were original official promotional
posters from the early 80s.

Such incredible images were prevalent in that golden era,
and all embedded in the velveteen quality of film so it's just a privilege to
be able to work with them and incorporate them into my work. There are still so
many images that have yet to be used from most of these movies and so, on top of
building my image database for simple perusal as mentioned earlier, I make a
habit of tracking down hi-res scans of international lobby sets as well as
selecting the precise HD resolution frame I want from digital releases for
utilizing in the work itself in order to present designs which showcase
hitherto unused images at some of the highest resolutions currently attainable
outside of actual film frame transfers.

The general response has been overwhelmingly positive, with
many requests from enthusiasts for me to tackle their favourite movies too -
some of which I have taken on board and might not necessarily have done so if
it were not for their passion igniting my own.

Funny thing is, being an avid collector of original poster
art for many years; I was never really keen on 'fan art' initially, thinking it
somewhere between sacrilegious amateur cheesecake and still worse. I'm steeped
in authenticity when it comes to collecting memorabilia as an investment on top
of its geek value and that used to affect my judgment of less than 'official'
posters, which meant that I was frequently negligent of their artistic value if
they didn't slot into some form of official lineage. Of course, the tables are
turned when it comes to wanting to create my own 'unofficial' designs for
established movies and then have those pieces appreciated outside of the
context of commissioned artwork, so I've adjusted my attitude, thankfully,
through direct experience. Movie paper collecting has also exposed me to many
international release posters and this has influenced my work to the point
where I've produced designs in US, UK, Japanese, Yugoslavian,
French and German languages (the text for which I've adapted from existing international
posters).

A few of the re-workings of them led to an interesting
collaboration with Paura Productions, tell me about that.

Head Honcho Mike Baronas saw my work on FaceBook, contacted
me with an offer to do a poster for his upcoming 30th Anniversary Cast Reunion
of Lucio Fulci'sCity of the Living Dead (an eternal favourite) and about ten
days later I delivered fourteen different designs, some of which he had printed
up and made available on his table for signings at the Chiller Theatre convention, 2010. He sent me a few in the post signed by Catriona MacColl (who
could attest to the fact that I had complete carte blanche, but not a blank
cheque!) which was a huge thrill since up until that time I was stoked simply
scoring official signed posters from eBay, let alone having my own designs
signed. I'll be returning to these designs, recreating them and updating them
using even higher resolution images that I've since acquired.

Some of your designs have also ended up gracing DVD
releases, and I know that there’s a full series of Olaf Ittenbach
films, some Brian Yuzna titles and others released by the Danish company Another
World Entertainment. How does designing DVD covers differ from poster art? Do
you approach them in a different way, or is the process similar?

The challenge for me when designing a DVD cover is that you
never know exactly where the final text will go, since it's usually left to the
DVD company to insert. It's therefore nearly impossible to create an airtight
design where the text and images knit together seamlessly, particularly on the
back panel. You have to work around approximations, which doesn’t suit my
perfectionist streak, and of course, like all commissions, the company has
final word over what images they would like you to use. Supplying designs for
A.W.E. is a knock-out - they know how to market their amazing collection of
genre titles with saliva inducing gorenographic covers and I was fortunate to
be led by the hand into this area by one of their key designers, whom I met and
become pals with online.

What I really like is the way one sees certain images and
then starts to recognize the aesthetics of the artist. Once one has a general feeling
of their style, you start to see their work all over the place. Like connecting
dots. This is how I came to appreciate your commissioned work. Poster after
poster would turn up online, and I’d go, “damn I knew it” each time Silver
Ferox Key Art was named alongside the artwork. Let’s talk about that, do you
feel that you have a “trademark” signature in your work?

While I've often used just one still image plus the
requisite title logo, credit block and tagline to create the most basic of
designs, I do so since I feel the movies at hand fair well with that type of
treatment. Most of the movies I like can produce an eye-catching design with
the use of just one still, if chosen effectively. If you choose the right still
you can convey a wealth of meaning in one fell cohesive blast. For example, my
'Venus de Rampling' designs for The Night Porter showcases a single image which
has enough signifiers in it as to divulge most of the main themes of the movie.
In this one frame you have a Nazi era, uniform fetish parading nymph flaunting
herself in front of drinking, smoking, piano playing freak-mask wearing
voyeurs. The strap line “The Most Controversial Picture Of Our Time” isn't
exactly needed, but I transferred it from an original campaign since I liked
the way it serves to cement the intentions of the original advertisers to
portray this scenario as taboo as opposed to a regular night out down at the
local burlesque. Alternatively, my 'doorway silhouette' design for the same
movie again employs the use of a single still, but this time there are very few
clues given as to the film's content – this time it's all about teasing the
viewer with minimal yet intriguing imagery.

There's over five hundred and fifty completed designs
currently on my site and I'm sure many look similar in style since they deal
with many similar films of the horror and exploitation genres. There are
others, however, for example Midnight Show, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Hooligan Wars, In The Mood For Love, The Shining, Psychos In Love, Emanuelle In America, Shogun Assassin and The Last House On The Left that I reckon appear to have no
connection due to the fact that all these films are so different which is
reflected in the diversity of layouts and techniques used. When Troma
commissioned me to produce posters for Father's Day, I had a comment on my blog
to the tune that all nine of the posters I'd created all looked the same – I
replied that they were a suite and weren't supposed to look like a disparate
collection of posters from nine different artists, even though the various
layouts encompassed everything from a classic character montage to single shots
plus double and triple-split designs. One thing that certainly unites my work
overall is the fact that so far I have used photography as the basis and not
illustration, but this will eventually evolve into an amalgamation of the two,
as I am planning on introducing digital painting methods into my work.

A lot of new wave UK directors have used your art in their
teaser and regular artwork. Alex Chandon, Darren Ward and Paul Campion – which
all have some really intense imagery, and again have that “hook” that I look
for in poster art, a moment that captures the essence of the movie so to say…
How did the collaborations with these guys come to be?

All of these directors are primarily huge enthusiasts of the
horror and exploitation genres and that's how we all came into proximity. They
put their life, soul and last buck into their movies and they want an artist
who has the same level of enthusiasm when it comes to embodying their precious
projects in poster art form.On the surface, yes it's all about FaceBook and email hook
ups, but that emotional/energetic tug beneath is the true harbinger. Since
these guys are amongst the first people I created posters for, they only had my
fan art portfolio to go on when determining whether I'd be suitable for the
task, which is why it is so important to constantly create work outside of paid
commissions to demonstrate your passion and skill set.

Oh, the only reason I eventually picked up The Devil’s
Rock was because I’d seen your Nazi Chick teaser poster which I completely fell
in love with. It’s simple and to the point. Do you prefer simple and to the
point or complex artwork?
Simple and to the point, undoubtedly. If complexity can lead
you back to simplicity then it is a charming route to take, although not
required. Revelling in the details and techniques can undoubtedly enhance
enjoyment of a piece, but when it comes to promotional artwork for many
productions, these promo pieces require an instant understanding by the viewer
to quickly lodge its message. If you can communicate an image instantly such as
a skull and on closer inspection you realize it is in fact an illusion created
through careful alignment of other images, then that artwork is appropriate for
advertising since after its initial instantaneous recognition it can cause the
viewer to linger while they decode the illusion which may ultimately be good
for business if it means the poster has extra 'eye service'.

Incidentally, The Devil's Rock's 'Nazi chick' design was one
that's been slammed for its inappropriate advertising of the movie's content.
Fair enough, if that was the main key art used, I'd agree, however it was one
of three different designs I created to compliment the main poster (the content
of which leaves absolutely no doubt as to the movies themes and imagery) in
order to spin off different elements of the movie for a multifaceted
advertising campaign. Just like the 'farmyard porn' teasers for Inbred, once I
saw that image of Gina Varela I knew it would make a killer poster and pull the
promo angle into new territory.

At what stage of the production do you become involved? Are
you around early on for brainstorming with the director, do you read the
scripts? What is the process?

I've been approached at all stages. The ideal stage would be
as soon as the production has enough decent hi-res stills for me to work with,
but this rarely happens. In a brainstorming situation, the director, for
example, might have these grand ideas as to what he wants the poster to look
like, but unless I have the images to support his vision, it's going to be very
difficult to achieve it in an organic way. The only time I've had to call quits
on a job was because the director's request was so elaborate that I knew it
would end up looking like a phony Photoshop composition of incongruous elements
and I didn't want to create that type of work. I did offer an alternative
solution, but it wasn't taken up. You can't expect an artist to be able to do
absolutely everything – you need to look at his portfolio and play to his
strengths to get the best result, otherwise it's like asking Snoop Dogg to sing
opera.

I have been offered scripts, but I refuse to read them – I
ask for a synopsis plus a list of key words so I have an overview of the
storyline and content. A shortlist of words such as 'gypsy, curse, tragedy,
zombie, triplets' will tell the story in a moment! Aside from not wishing to
invest the time or having the inclination to read a lengthy script, at the end
of the day I read images as opposed to words. Asking clients to peruse my portfolio and pick out any
relevant designs including any other existing poster art for similarly themed
films so I have as much an idea as possible as to what's desired is always a
solid plan.

I generally start with designing the movie title logo and
may try out up to around thirty different fonts and text layouts until I'm left
to ponder over which one to use and at this stage I might show my client a few
flagged versions to see if they have an opinion on which one to approve. For
Joe Bosco'sThe Bottle, the Chain and the Damage Done I initially came up with
a logo that I was pleased with, since I'd managed to pull together such a
lengthy title in a way that was compact, easy to read and aesthetically swell.
The response from the production was that it looked cool but to eliminate its
slightly 'wild west' styling in order to better represent a contemporary action
road movie. This is where the pain starts, as you feel you've done your best
with a logo design where all the letter forms snap together perfectly (as if by
magic!) and now you need to change direction with the design. I submitted a
further two logos, of which they approved one but in my heart I knew I still
hadn't nailed it. I spent another two days researching fonts until I hit on one
which allowed me to retain my original layout, so all the words were in my
preferred configuration, yet which replaced the original block serifs in favour
of a sans-serif family with angled edges which generated a hard and rugged,
machine-made vibe (the 'C' of 'Chain' in the title now looked like a chain-link
graphic, to boot). I presented this after I'd already had a previous design
approved and got the thumbs up.

Let’s stay with Inbred for a while. One of my favourite
t-shirts I have is the image of the scantily clad woman, with a horses head
naively taped over her face… a great image only seen for moments in the film, but
still ended up on poster art.How the
hell did you come up with that image?

Director Alex Chandon sent me around three hundred and fifty
production stills ranging from publicity shots to red camera stills and 4K
screen grabs out of which there was one clear and usable photograph of the
'Farmyard Porn' magazine used in the movie. Bizarre, depraved and darkly
humorous, I immediately earmarked it for two teaser designs (I split the photo
in two to make two different designs now known as 'chicken' and 'horse' porn).
This is a perfect example of why I always ask for as many images from the
production as possible in an attempt to avoid having to rely on the image selections
doled out to me from clients who think they know what's best to use (not that
this was the case in this instance, since Alex totally understands the process
and supported the designs with this abundance of stills). It's very highly
unlikely that this particular image would have been picked out for use on a
poster if left to the producers – however, in this particular case, Alex flexed
his creative control and let it be known that even if the producers didn't want
to support my designs, then he'd reach into his own pocket, since he knows the
value of covering as many facets of the film as possible especially at the
critical teaser stage. A poster such as the 'horse porn' teaser has an instant
effect on the people who 'get it', making them want to check out the movie some
more, while other more commercial designs may go past unnoticed by that
particular crowd, so it makes sense to dictate your requirements to the artist
whilst also giving them the resources and initiative to do their own thing.

I know that you have worked with US indie maverick Jim
VanBebber known for some really “out there” movies, and his infamous turmoil
with his The Manson Family film. Tell me about that collaboration, because this
is a guy who was around making movies when movie posers still looked cool by
default. What was it like working with him?

I got Jim's attention when I pushed his way a suite of fan
art posters I created for his seminal 80s indie gang thriller Deadbeat at Dawn,
after which he kept me in mind to do the package design for his upcoming DBAD
soundtrack premier CD release. His long term Director of Photography, Mike King
coordinated the project along with Jim and they really let me do my own thing,
citing elements of my DBAD posters as a reference. Jim's movies are packed with
detail, so I basically put together a package that utilized as much panel space
as possible to bombast the DBAD visuals. I went through every scene in the film
and took DVD screen captures of the exact frames I wanted to use and then I
placed each image relevant to the various cover panels in order to tell a
visual story, with the CD disc itself being adorned with an image of a car
radio from the movie for extra detail. I presented two versions of this layout
and Jim picked the one he liked, specifically because it had an image of the
angelic cemetery statue overlooking the montage, so there was a definite back
and forth relationship with the project to ensure creative control was in Jim's,
Mike's and my own hands. My first cover submission featured a tri-toned image
of Jim sprinting that he rejected in favour of the classic 'Jim sandwich with
extra ketchup' photo and rightly so – it's probably the best representation of
the movie in one shot. For the cover logo, I adopted the original font used in
the title sequence of the movie itself (also used to great effect on the US
poster logo for John Carpenter's Escape from New York) to further transfer
Jim's vision to the package. Finally, I asked Jim to write liner notes and he
responded with a concise overview of his upbringing and the genesis of his
movie and accompanying soundtrack, which is the icing on the cake. My attempt
at scraping off a layer of his film and placing it onto the CD package without
interfering with its aesthetics has now led to me working on the artwork for
Jim's latest shot on film production Gator Green.

There’s a bunch of young US indie filmmakers who you have
made artwork for,Scott Goldberg’s The Three,
Craig J. McIntyre’s The Los Angeles Ripper and Brian C. Weed’s Bloody
Homecoming to name a few… is there any difference in what US indie
filmmakers want compared to UK filmmakers?

There's nothing that stands out to me. The internet
facilitates easy viewing of poster images from across the globe so this means
both countries now desire the best elements from all international artworks
thus making their desires very similar. US and UK productions can see outside
of their cultural particularities enough these days not to be too readily
influenced by them. Most of the impact made on the poster designs in each
country is more a result of the various design studios employed to produce the
artwork as opposed to the producers' particular taste. The US has a great many
high powered design houses compared to the UK, so it's possible their poster
work may contain a level of production value not easily attainable by smaller
outfits in the UK.

Is there any reflection of nationality in what they want in
the imagery?

Only really as far as it corresponds to the theme of the
film and there is a definite trend in the UK, for example, to exploit what used
to be termed the 'working class' hero – the boiled beef and carrots, cheeky and
chipper but hard as nails barrow boy stereotype which has now transformed into
the multi-racial, sports gear drenched aspiring 'chav' cliché. You'll see UK
crime dramas 'big up' their national identity by utilizing Union Jacks on their
posters as much as we used to see the Star Spangled Banner frequently adorn US
artwork in the 70s for themes concerning the American Dream but in all honesty
the cross pollination of US and UK cultures nowadays makes it difficult for me
to tell the difference. If you were to compare other countries such as Japan,
Thailand and Africa, for example, then you would see a clearer reflection,
since these cultures vary more from each other compared to the US and UK
through not only the obvious ethnical differences of the actors on the posters
(regarding movies made in their own country), but you'd also see made more
apparent the cultural preferences for different design approaches to poster
art, especially if you consider pre-90s output. Japan has a long history of
employing busy, photo based layouts and graphics, Thailand primarily used
hand-painted images adapted from publicity photos and African hand-painted
posters exhibit wonderfully child-like renditions seemingly pulled out of the
local witch-doctor's worst nightmare.

The art for Darren Ward’s A Day of Violence (which I still
have to see) is pretty gruesome. Have encountered any negative
feedback or response to your art work?

Surprisingly, hardly any, aside from the occasional
eye-dagger from my fiancée when I proudly show her my latest atrocity. That's
the nature of the beast – if you're going to deal with extreme subject matter,
then you have to faithfully transmit that content or else you're sabotaging
your work and your duty to the production with half-assed politically correct
bias and self-righteous censorship. I attempt to transmit atrocity in the form
of an artistic, lyrical or darkly humoured context which is why I like most of
the great 70s and 80s horror flicks which were packed with extreme gore
set-pieces yet had a certain fantasy element and quasi-realism which entranced
you as you enjoyed the spectacle for what it obviously appeared to be – a
special effect illusion. As amazing as the classic practical effects were, they
still had a certain crudity (you could spot a fake severed head from a mile
off) which had an artistic and make-believe value built in by default which is
a long way off from the degree of nauseating realism achieved in many of
today's horror movies. Like the strings viewable in a puppet show, I like to
see that connection to a reality that lies in the wings – it adds to the
awareness and appreciation of fabrication instead of presenting you with
something that crosses the line into sterile hyperrealism.

And talking about controversy, Ruggero Deodato! A living
legend and household name to anyone familiar with the trashy exploitation films
that came out of Italy during the eighties, how did you come to be involved
with The House on the Edge of the Park Part II, which in some ways plays with
that complexity we talked about earlier.

I spied on the net that North Bank Entertainment were in
line to produce Deodato's sequel so I contacted them with a proposal to create
some teaser posters,mentioning that I
was very familiar with the Italian horror cycle and Deodato's films in
particular. After they checked out my portfolio I was asked to create a retro-styled
poster and I advised that it might be a good idea to instead go full-on
contemporary with the designs in order to appeal to the investors who may not
necessarily be fans of vintage movie posters themselves. North Bank said go for
it.

This was the first time I'd taken the initiative and it was
a big deal for me, compounded by the fact that there was no imagery yet
available for the movie, so I knew I had to come up with something from
scratch. My first concept was simply to showcase the original star Giovanni Lombardo Radice aka John Morghen
since he's an icon of 80s Italian horror cinema who is to reprise his role in
the sequel – the plan was to grab the attention of the genre fans whose
subsequent word-of-mouth might help generate publicity. The only recent and
decent image I could find of Johnny was a publicity still which I gleaned from
his website so I adapted it for the poster via cropping, distorting and
grading.I came up with the tagline
“Everything you fear under one roof” and placed this text as if it were a
shadow being cast onto his head suggesting that his cranium be viewed as a
metaphor for the 'roof'. I read a criticism of my use of the ever-popular
Trajan (Pro) font in the logo due its similarity to the then current logo for
the US remake of The Last House on the Left but like I said, that was something
I did deliberately to firmly cement my poster in a tried and tested
contemporary design style – at this initial stage it was all about
demonstrating that modest independent UK productions could deliver artwork
indefinable from the larger US studios' output.

I created a second teaser design, the 'skull tree' that ended up being the more popular of the two due to its overtly macabre imagery.
This design was a riff on the original US artwork, which features a painting of
an illusion of a reaper's skull formed from the trick-of-the-eye placement of
the titular house and parkland. I scoured my local area for ominous looking
houses amid the forestry and met the sight of a very creepy looking tree right
next to a house entrance that looked unique and perfect for the task.
Fortunately, this was autumn time and if I had gone at any other season this
tree would have looked entirely different and ineffective for the job. I
overlaid my photo of the tree with an image of a skull, which finally clicked
into place after I removed the jawbone. Much to Deodato's delight a collector
pal of mine had this file printed out to full one-sheet poster size and
presented several of them to Deodato to sign at this years Texas Frightmare
Weekend convention (2012) after which I was sent a signed print, which was
formidable.

You have designed a whole series of exciting posters, new
renditions of classic pieces, for the movie club Cigarette Burns. How do you
approach these pieces, especially a movie like A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin which
already has so many iconic artworks, but then you still come up with something
that captures the essence of the film, feels fresh and at the same time feels
as if it could have been of the time period?

Each movie I've been assigned by Cigarette Burns Cinema club
to produce a poster for has been one I've grown up with and also have a large
database of hi-res images for. The design I used of FlorindaBolkan reclining
on the couch for the A Lizard in a Woman's Skin poster came about after I
initially wanted to do my own version of the fantastic US poster art that
featured a splice of an image of a woman (a studio model) with that of a
lizard. I began marrying various lizard and Bolkan images but soon realized
that if I simply tinted green an appropriate picture of her (one in which she
was lying belly down and splayed out over some vintage patent leather
avant-garde seating arrangement – the ultimate lounge-lizard!) then I had no
need to go further to reference the title of the film. An overlaid pattern of
undulating lines to subtly evoke reptilian scales and classic 70s psychedelic
motifs plus the warping of the title logo to echo the main curves of Florinda's
torso whilst playing off the distortion of the couch as it appears to push out
the nearby line of text all supported the main themes within the movie through
design elements typical of vintage graphic art of the era. This instils a retro
vibe to the poster, while careful choice of an image that has never been used
on official artwork for Fulci's movie lends it a fresh perspective. Fulci
Lives, dammit!

He most certainly does, and I really love that piece you did
for A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin! How come poster art feels like a dying trade?

One reason it seems to be becoming extinct is because the
artisans responsible for creating illustrated posters over twenty years ago have
transferred their talents to the digital domain. There's an abundance of
digital art being produced while traditionally illustrated poster art is
virtually non-existent now. So many designs will never see the light of a print
run these days since most content is viewed digitally or online. Another major
reason why there's an abundance of dreadful movie posters on the net is that
many producers are quite content to knock up a design in their lunch hour for
the sake of saving themselves a few hundred quid. It's a false economy on top
of foolish practice since these 'masterpieces of shit' posters cheapen their
movie production and scare off potential viewers with their less than skilful
presentation. I've seen many a production refuse to spend an appropriate 500
quid (and that's a bargain) on a decent poster to represent a production
they've just spent a quarter of a million on, for example, which is insane and
shows a complete lack of marketing skill and respect in representing all the
movie's contributors in a professional manner.

Is there any artwork, new or old that you look at and say,
“Damn I wish I’d made that?”

Too many!

What do you see on the horizon for genre film poster art? Do
you think that the fine art of the poster will return or do you think that
we’ll see more generic stuff like the “faces of cast against black”
nonchalantly hurled at the fans?

We will definitely see a return to the golden days of yore
as much as we'll see an increasing barrage of pre-fabricated fodder – it's up
to us to explore that contrast and support what's most appealing.

What would be a “dream come true” project to design?

Anything that involves dealing with leading edge subject
matter and not necessarily in the exploitation or horror genre.

Ok, I know that you have to get back to work so I’ll let you
go now. Thanks for taking the time out and I’ll be looking forward to seeing
more of your great artwork on your webpage.

It's been a pleasure, Jason. I have an exclusive here for
you too – it's a first look at a commissioned teaser for the upcoming US indie
psychedelic road movie The Bottle, the Chain and the Damage Done. Thanks a lot
for the interview and good luck with your book!